Sznajder, Benet win again
Benet outlasted a determined Marian Catholic 21-14 on a rainy night on Friday in Chicago Heights.
Jack Sznajder scored 3 touchdowns to lead the Redwings to their seventh win.
"It was a tough game," said Redwings coach Pat New. "They're a good team, I knew they were going to come out and play hard. We were in for a battle and I'm just happy to come out of here with a win."
The Redwings (7-2, 5-2 East Suburban Catholic Conference) can begin preparations for the IHSA playoffs.
"We are going to watch television and see who we are paired up with and get ready for playoff game No. 1," New said. "We have to execute. We did a horrible job of executing tonight. A lot of dropped balls, missed passes and missed blacks. We got a lot of work to do."
The Spartans (1-8, 0-7) scored on a 91-yard strike from Cameron Thomas to Joseph Stith to give the Spartans a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. It was the first time the Spartans had a lead since Week 3 against Marian Central (a 56-16 loss at home).
But the Redwings responded with two touchdowns by Sznajder in the first and second quarters on runs of 20 and 2 yards to take a 14-7 lead into the half.
"Records don't mean much to us," Sznajder said. "We knew that these guys were a tough team. They have a lot of great athletes. We knew they would come out to play and it was a dogfight."
The Spartans had eight sophomores and one freshman on the field, but the team led by its core of 15 seniors came back to tie the game on a 7-yard pass from Cameron Thomas to Victor Akinyemi in the fourth quarter.
"At least the guys can leave it on the field," said Spartans coach Jerry Verde. "We caught Benet after a huge win they had (last week 24-21 over Joliet Catholic) and with the rain it might have been the perfect storm for us to be in the game."
Sznajder came back late in the game to score his third touchdown of the game on a sneak up the middle for 60 yards and a touchdown.
"I feel we came out in the second half and stepped up our game," said Redwings senior Alec McEachern.